Comment by the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
We would like to make the following comment in connection with the reports that appeared in the Western media that Russia allegedly blocked the UN Security Council Press Statement on the North Korean missile launch on July 4.
This information is not correct. As was indicated by the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation Vladimir Safronkov during the UN Security Council open meeting on this issue on July 5 the Russian Delegation could not agree to define the launch as an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
According to the Statement of the Russian Defense Ministry, the launch of the ballistic missile on July 4 from the North Korean test site was recorded and monitored by the Russian Missile Attack Warning System. The parametric flight data of the ballistic target corresponds to the tactical and technical parameters of a medium-range ballistic missile. Basing on this assessment, Russia suggested that the United States, as the penholders of the draft Press Statement, make appropriate amendments to it.
We would like to emphasize that the document of the Security Council was negotiated in the standard way, and, to our knowledge, nobody interrupted this process. Claims that Russia "blocked" the adoption of the statement fall short of the truth.
The quotation made by the Reuters agency is accurate and reflects the position of the Russian Federation on the issue of DPRK’s ballistic missile launch on July 4. The problem is that the quotation is extracted from the correspondence between the political coordinators of the UN Security Council Member States. Citing such documents in the open is, at very least, confusing.
Unfortunately, once again we witness the unscrupulous steps of some Members of the Security Council, which commit deliberate leaks, undermining the culture of interaction established in the UN Security Council over the years.
